Limited Opportunity Success!

Skyler has success!  With 15 any elk tags and 60 cow elk tags on a hunt with very limited number of elk it make for some tough hunting.  After 4 straight weeks of scouting and 3.5 hours in the air flying the unit we had determined there were four shooters (Skyler's standards 320+ and no he has never killed an elk before, yes he is very picky).  Opening morning had us 850 yards from a group of 10 bulls with one "shooter" before the wind changed direction and they were off running.  Three miles later they crossed the highway into a part of the unit that we could not hunt.  Day two and three went by without even seeing an elk.  The morning of day four found us tracking a group of elk in the soft sand for over 3.5 hours in the dense tree cover in hopes of finally completing the task at hand.  After bumping the group from there first bedding spot with out a shot the trek was back on.  Approx. 1.5 miles later we came around the corner of a cedar tree and I hear Skyler say "there he is under that tree".  Yes the "shooter" was bedded only 150 yards from us looking the opposite direction.  After an awesome shot with no coaching from dad the journey was complete.

Here are a couple pictures of the awesome velvet bull elk Skyler took.



There is an extremely hard hunt.  They don't call it limited opportunity for no reason.  We talked to over 20 different hunts that had not seen an elk in three days.  Today is the last day of the hunt and I have only heard of two bulls and two cows killed.
Here is a short clip of Skyler's hunt with the kill shot, walking up to the elk and the interview is on a different camera. I will post the entire hunt video when it is completed later.  Thanks to Jed Larson for getting the kill shot on tape.  He did not have time to zoom in on the bull before Skyler put the hammer down.  Congrats Skyler that's an awesome elk for a 12 year old.